


New team blue

by Aknolan



Category: Little Witch Academia
Genre: AU, Gen, I was just curious what would happen myself, that's the only reason I am writing this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-19
Updated: 2017-08-26
Packaged: 2018-11-16 04:57:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 20,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11246772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aknolan/pseuds/Aknolan
Summary: Akko, Amanda and Diana all end up in a team together, team blue. Will they get along though?





	1. The beginning of a journey

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, so this is my second time writing a fic. I don't know how far I'll get, so I might end up cutting it off short. If anyone likes the idea but not the fic, feel free to try it yourself or get someone else to do it, as I am aware I'm not exactly the best writer. Apologies if the characters feel OOC. This is my first time writing for LWA. Also my autocorrect does a lot of really weird stuff like correcting my to nu, so if you read something weird, I probably missed it.
> 
> I also appreciate any constructive criticism. My plan is not to go down a shippy road, as I don't know how to write shippy things, so I probably wont have people getting into relationships.

Akko looked at her map again. It had to be around here somewhere right? As she looked up again she saw the tower. A bit odd for a bus stop, but then again, she _was_ going to a school for witches. Things were bound to be odd. So she started running towards the tower, following the path to her best ability. Of course she ended up being so focused on running towards the tower that she didn't notice the person walking in front of her. They both ended up falling to the ground.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" "Sorry." As Akko started gathering her things, which of course all had to fall out of her bag, she noticed the girl in front of her was wearing a uniform she recognized as the one that witches of Luna Nova wore. "Are you going to Luna Nova? Me too! I am so excited to finally learn magic! My name is atsuko kagari by the way, though you can call me Akko!" Akko started rambling about Luna Nova and Chariot while the other girl just stared at her. After about 10 seconds of the non-stop flow of words, combined with wondering how Akko still had breath to talk more, she turned around and started walking towards the leyline.

Akko being Akko, of course just followed her. While the other girl was getting increasingly annoyed, Akko suddenly realized something. "Oh! I forgot to ask, what's your name?" "Really? You just realized that?" The girl sighed. "My name is Amanda." "Nice to meet you Amanda!" "Right, it would be a lot nicer if you could talk a little less." At that she turned around and started walking again. Akko managed to stay silent, following Amanda, for the span of 30 seconds. This was much to the frustration of Amanda, who did not have the energy to deal with Akko's excessive talking right that moment.

Luckily for her, she knew a cloaking spell. It didn't last very long, but it should be long enough to get rid of Akko. And hopefully it was strong enough to fool someone in bright daylight. She didn't really want to use her magic, this far from the leyline where she could replenish it, but she really wanted some peace and quiet before she'd inevitably have to deal with the teachers scolding her as usual. So she decided to use the spell anyways.

She stopped walking, Akko stopped too, looking at her with confusion clear on her face. Amanda moved to stand behind Akko and pointed at the leyline terminal. "Hey Akko, tell me what you see." She lowered her hand as Akko started talking about everything she knew. Amanda whispered the spell and moved away from the path. When Akko noticed she was gone she started looking around. "Where did she go? Did she use a spell? That's amazing! ...But she's gone..." Akko looked around for a bit longer before turning towards the leyline terminal. "Guess I'll just go then..." And so she started walking again. Meanwhile Amanda was walking towards a different path that would take her to the leyline terminal. She'd probably be there a bit later than Akko, meaning she wouldn't see her again until school. Which was fine by Amanda.


	2. Leyline

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akko gets to the leyline terminal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part of this story might be redundant retelling of what happens in the episodes, so I apologize for that. I just don't really have a way to leave them out without it seeming like there's just gaps in the story. I'll try to have as little of that as possible though.

When Akko finally got to the leyline terminal she saw that there were three people already there, wearing Luna Nova uniforms. She was about to go say hi, hoping this would go better than Amanda, when she overhead them talking about a new student who wasn't from a witch lineage. The three girls seemed to have a lot of disdain for this new student. Of course, this new student was Akko herself. She decided she should probably leave before they noticed her and turned around, but a voice stopped her. "And you are?" "Kagari Atsuko... I'm a new student." The three girls looked at her with disdain. "Oh, so it's you." Akko didn't know how to respond to this, so she changed the topic. Though that was also disastrous. "I do hope the bus gets here soon..." The girl with a lavender cloth holding her broom together looked at her and said "Bus?" At that Akko felt her heart sink. "Isn't this the bus stop?" The girls with red cloths on their brooms answered "You don't know?" "Do you really believe a bus would come here?" The three all pointed their brooms at Akko and said "Tia Freyre". The girls with red cloths said "This is a broom stop." "The leyline terminal" "This location is connected to Luna Nova through a leyline." "Magic energy has flowed through the leylines since ancient times." The girl with the lavender cloth finished their explanation before they all flew off. "You can fly to Luna Nova by riding that energy." In unison they said "This is a magic highway, it's common sense to witches." Before they went into the leyline Akko heard them saying something about being permanently expelled if they were late.

Once they were gone Akko was alone again, and in trouble. She needed to get there in time or she'd be permanently expelled, but the way to get to Luna Nova was apparently by broom. The problem with that was that she didn't have one. But it seemed like the important part was the leyline, not the broom. So if she climbed up to the entrance of the leyline, she might be able to get there anyways, right? And so she tried to climb up, only to fall down when the roots she was using as handholds proved to be too weak to hold her weight. Just as she got up to try again, she saw someone coming down the path. It wasn't Amanda, instead it was someone with blonde, almost white hair. The girl was wearing a Luna Nova uniform and was walking towards the leyline terminal with confidence radiating off of her. The cloth on her broom was a light blue. She was kind of intimidating, but also probably Akko's last hope. 

It didn't take long for her to notice Akko, who was still lying on the ground. Akko quickly got up and nearly ran towards the girl before stopping a few feet in front of her. "You're going to Luna Nova right?" "Yes, I am." "So am I!" Akko paused for a moment. "Except... I don't have a broom... and I don't know how to fly either..." "Ah, so you must be the new student who isn't from a witch family." Akko's expression soured at that, fully expecting this confident, almost arrogant girl to walk past her then and there, leaving her alone to be expelled.

The girl, however, looked thoughtful and not disdainful. "It would be unfair if you never got a chance to learn magic because of something you could not have known." At those words Akko perked up a little, still afraid that this was going to go wrong somehow. "Very well then, you can come with me. We are already dreadfully late, but it is still possible to make it in time." "Really?! Thank you so much!" Akko close the distance between them to give her savior a hug, surprising the other girl. Akko suddenly remembered how intimidating the other girl had looked before, and decided it was probably best not to push her luck, so she let go of the girl. "Oh right, I am Kagari Atsuko, but call me Akko!" "I will, I am Diana Cavendish. We should leave now, as we will be late if we stay here any longer." At those words she started preparing her broom, hanging the bags on it before getting on, indicating for Akko to do the same. As they launched off and into the leyline, Amanda got to the terminal and prepared to leave too.

As they were flying in the leyline Akko kept yelling about how she wanted to get off, something which was impossible now that they were already there. Diana frowned slightly at this, annoyed at the girl who had been so happy at the offer of a ride before, but now that they were on the broom she seemed to want nothing less than leave. Nothing to do about it now anyways, it was going to be hard enough to get there in time, even without going back to put Akko down. Amanda entered the leyline behind them. As they all flew through it, Diana noticed something was wrong, flying through the leylines was always a rather peaceful experience. There were never any problems, not even wind, though that part about leylines was kind of disturbing. Diana's mind was already racing to figure out what it could be when she realized that Akko probably didn't even know what leylines were, or else she wouldn't have gone to the leyline terminal without a broom. 

"Akko, do you have any salt with you?" At this Akko stopped yelling. "Salt?" "Yes, Salt. One should never take salt with them into a leyline, as it hinders the flow of magic. As such, the leyline will attempt to, for lack of better word, throw out the salt, and as long as the salt is with us the chance of this ending well is slim." Akko thought about it for a moment before grabbing a small jar. "Is this it?" "If whatever is in the jar has salt, then yes. In that case, you should throw it out." "But these are my pickled plums? How am I supposed to survive wi-" in the middle of her sentence the broom suddenly went out of control for a moment. "Akko! Throw it away!" "Alright alright!" 

Just as Akko was going to grab the plums again to throw them away, one of her chariot cards fell and got blown away. "No! The card!" She leaned towards it to try and grab it. As she did so, she loosened her grip on Diana. Diana cried out in alarm "Akko! what are you doing?!" But it was too late, Akko was already falling. Not willing to just let her deal with the dangers herself, considering Akko couldn't even use a broom, Diana went after her. Behind them, was Amanda, who was trying to control her broom when Akko came falling down. She didn't have enough control or time to get out of the way, causing them both to fall into the wrong exit. Diana was too focused on Akko to notice the exit hole, leaving her no time to change direction as she too fell through it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am dividing episodes according to how much I actually end up writing for them, as episode 1 is already 4,5k words, and that's a bit long for one chapter. Also means it'll be more manageable for me to keep going with this project. So this is basically episode 1, part 2.


	3. Arcturus Forest: part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They end up in Arcturus Forest, not the safest place to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I broke this up in two as it was getting a little bit too long. This first part is a bit shorter, while the second part is a lot longer. Getting a more even divide would have cut it off at a really awkward point however, so this is what I'm going with.

Akko ended up sort of having her fall broken by the trees, as she luckily only hit branches that were too thin to catch her weight. It still hurt a lot, but it was a miracle that she hadn't ended up with any actual wounds. Another miracle was that her chariot card ended up falling right onto her chest. She thought it would have surely been lost for good. As she sat up she suddenly realized that the ground was a bit too soft to actually be the ground, rather, it was Amanda. The girl who had already been pissed at Akko earlier, and this definitely wouldn't help. She wasn't moving either. Akko of course, jumped straight to conclusions. "S-She's dead..." As she said that, Akko turned around so as to not have to see the corpse any longer. Except Amanda got up. "Hey! What the hell? Now I'm never going to be there on time, and it's your fault!"

Akko hadn't expected her to even move, and was startled. "You're alive!" "Of course I am, do you really think that would kill me? More importantly, how am I going to get to Luna Nova now? I don't even know where we are!" Amanda started looking around and noticed her broom. "Oh, great, my broom is broken. Well. That's it. No Luna Nova for us." Akko just looked at her, at this point she was too scared to do anything else. Meanwhile Diana was still on her broom, trying to see where they were. When she saw one huge tree sticking out way above all of the others, she suddenly realized, and as she did she felt her heart sink. Amanda may not have known where they were, but she was right. They could all forget about Luna Nova, as they would never make it in time. She flew down and landed on the ground. "We are in Arcturus Forest." Akko was relieved to have the distraction, but also confused. "Arcturus Forest?" "Oh that's great, the forest that not even witches can get out of! You know, not getting to Luna Nova is something I would at least survive, but I guess this is it. We are going to die in this forest." "What? That can't be true! We have to make it! This is my only chance to learn magic!"

Diana however, looking as confident as ever, denied Amanda's statement. "That is only a legend. In reality it is not difficult at all to leave Arcturus Forest, however, considering your broken broom it will take too much time, as I can't fly with three people. I cannot in good conscience leave you two alone either, so we will be walking. Follow me." Having said this, she turned and started walking, not even looking back to see if the others were following her. "Wait, who are you even? You've got to at least tell me your name before you try to tell me what to do." Diana stopped walking and turned around. "I am Diana Cavendish, and you are?" Amanda's eyes widened slightly at that, though Akko didn't notice. "I'm Amanda O'neill." "Well, now that you know my name, follow me, I know how to get out of here." Amanda looked like she was about to protest, but Diana had already turned around and started walking. Akko stood there, looking from Amanda to Diana, until eventually Amanda started following Diana. Akko followed quickly.

While walking Akko noticed a strange plant in a small clearing. She moved towards it and turned around to ask a question "Hey Diana, what's this?" Diana looked back at her just in time to see the dangerous plant preparing for an attack on an unaware Akko. She quickly grabbed her wand as Amanda yelled at Akko to get away from there. With a quick spell Diana managed to stop the plant's lunge, as Akko, having only just noticed it, started running away from it. With another spell Diana managed to constrain the plant, buying them time to get away. As she started running she yelled at them to follow her, this time neither of them hesitated for even a second.

As they ran they easily left the plant behind, allowing them to slow down and start walking again. However, Arcturus Forest was still a very dangerous place, with dangers lurking around every corner. After walking for a while they suddenly heard a rumbling noise, as if a giant was walking around. Diana stopped and held her hand up, motioning for the others to stop too. Just as Akko was about to ask something Diana turned around, gesturing for her to stay silent. The noise didn't seem to be getting closer, but then there was a very different noise. It almost sounded like a chicken and it startled the three, causing Akko and Amanda to cry out in alarm. That was about the worst thing they possibly could have done, as the creature making the noise had now noticed them and came towards them. It stuck its head out above the trees, letting the three girls see the strange creature.


	4. Arcturus Forest: part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "That is not a chicken, that is a mythical cockatrice"
> 
> Of course there is a very big difference between the two, chickens are mostly harmless. Mythical cockatrices though? Not quite.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To celebrate the _amazing_ finale that I just watched which made my cheeks hurt from smiling too much, here's the new chapter! It's a long one. Fingers crossed for season 2.

"What is that even? A giant chicken?" "Get away from there! That is not a chicken, that is a mythical cockatrice, and it is very dangerous. Its breath will petrify you if you get caught in it." While saying this, Diana was already on the move, getting onto her broom to be able to move more easily. While Akko and Amanda were trying to get away, Diana was already shooting spells at it to distract it and dodging it at the same time. Unfortunately, the attacks didn't seem to be doing anything, and the cockatrice just ran after Akko and Amanda. The two of them were now running down a hill, but in their panic they ran faster than their legs could handle, causing them to stumble and fall. At a loss for what to do, Diana tried all sorts of spells to keep it from getting to Akko and Amanda.

Meanwhile Akko and Amanda were holding on for dear life, as the hill had become rather steep and at the end of it was a fall of a hundred meters. Witches could survive a lot, but not that. Akko found a thick root of a tree to hold on to, and hoisted herself and Amanda onto it. From there they could stand up and get back up the hill, as Diana was distracting the oversized chicken. There was a problem however, Amanda had fallen particularly poorly, and ended up needing Akko's support to walk. "Well, if there was even a chance of us making it in the first place, that's definitely not going to happen now, not when I can barely even walk." "But we are going to make it! I know it! I have to, if I want to become a witch. If I reach out, it's sure to begin! Thrilling! And exciting!" With every sentence, Akko and Amanda got further up the hill, and with every sentence another star ignited, forming a staff. "My very own story!" And with those words, they reached the top of the hill, where the staff formed. It glowed, and Akko immediately recognized it. "That's Chariot's magic staff!" But another scream from the cockatrice interrupted her thoughts, as she remembered Diana was still fighting it. She thought about it for a few seconds before making up her mind.

Determined, Akko grabbed the staff and told Amanda to be careful and hide. "Hey birdbrain! What are you chasing after her for! come and get me!" As Akko tried to taunt it, the cockatrice didn't seem to care about her at all. So for lack of a better plan, Akko grabbed some rocks off the ground and did her best to hit the cockatrice. She somehow managed to hit it straight in its eye, pissing it off a lot. As it turned towards her, she started running as fast as she could, looking around to try and find one of the small clearings like the one the plant from before was in. Diana meanwhile had picked up Amanda and chased after Akko, not knowing what the girl's plan was, but doing what she could to help. Akko ended up finding a murderous plant and managed to escape it and the cockatrice at the same time, falling in the process.

Diana, having seen this, decided it was time to distract the cockatrice again, until she saw what Akko's plan had been. The murderous plant had trapped the cockatrice. Akko herself didn't even seem to believe it, as she wondered out loud at how it had worked. At seeing this Diana decided that they had no other choice but to ride the broom with the three of them, at least until they got away from the cockatrice. It would be difficult to keep up, but it should get them far enough away that they'd at least be safe. "Akko, get on the broom, behind Amanda." "Thanks Diana!" As they flew away, it was the first time Diana had any kind of calm and peace since meeting Akko, and she hoped it would last.

But alas, it was not meant to be, as the cockatrice had proven to be stronger than the plant. This was bad, as the cockatrice, unlike an actual chicken, was actually quite adept at flying. It chased them and Diana knew that no matter how good she was at flying, they couldn't get away from it when they were all on the broom together. It would have been hard enough had the cockatrice stayed trapped, but now it was just impossible. As they were flying away the cockatrice suddenly sent a breath of fire towards them, not as dangerous as its petrifying breath, but a bit more terrifying to see. Diana did what she could to avoid it, as one of the teachers from Luna Nova arrived to try and help them out, though she was supposed to be at Luna Nova herself for the matriculation.

As Diana did her best to keep the broom under control, keep Akko and Amanda from falling off and dodge the fire breaths, she ended up cutting it too close, and the broom started burning at the end, as Akko mentioned. Of course, Akko had gone straight into panic mode again, and Amanda's arms had tightened around Diana uncomfortably, as she seemed to be holding on for dear life. Amanda looked back at the cockatrice with absolute terror. She had realized that Arcturus Forest would be the death of her if they ended up being stuck, but being burned to death reminded her a little too much of her history lessons. Apparently it was the most painful way medieval people could think of to kill someone, and Amanda didn't want to test it.

As the broom burned up more and more, Diana found it harder and harder to control it, as such when the next breath of fire came, it came so close that the broom was no longer useable. While they started falling Diana reached for her wand, already going through a mental list of spells to find one to make sure they didn't fall to their death. While she was doing this however, she noticed a Luna Nova teacher was there, shouting words. And Akko was repeating them, while the staff in her hand started to glow. How Akko got a staff in the first place was also a mystery, but if the teacher wasn't doing anything, then perhaps she should at least see what would happen. There was enough time to cast a spell anyways. As she listened to hear what Akko was saying she managed to hear the words 'aude' and 'fraetor', recognizing them immediately. Her eyes widened slightly, as Akko's staff, the shiny rod, turned into a bow. Akko yelled the words "Shiny arc" before shooting an arrow made of pure magic. Diana was too shocked by this to do anything, while Amanda was too shocked in general to do anything. As Diana and Akko watched the arrow go, it turned into a gateway into a leyline.

The three of them fell in and kept falling through the leyline, eventually coming out of the leyline again, straight into Luna Nova's hall, where the headmistress was holding a speach for matriculation. As they shot out of the ground, Diana cast a spell to slow their descent. She managed to land gracefully, immediately straightening her posture and radiating confidence, as she usually did. Amanda almost managed to land on her feet, but the pain in her leg caused her to fall. Akko mostly just kept her eyes closed and flailed about, hoping she wouldn't fall too hard, as she hadn't realized that Diana had slowed them all down. When she hit the ground and looked around, she quickly stood up. "Yeah! We made it!" After saying this she started laughing from the sheer absurdity combined with the relief of still having a chance at becoming a witch. Amanda was also grinning, never really expecting to make it, not after getting stranded in Arcturus Forest. Diana simply sighed and closed her eyes, already preparing herself for how much trouble they were in.

After the ceremony professor Finnerman told the three of them to stay behind. "You three will be teammates, meaning that you will share a room, but also punishments. Not for small things, but if one of you causes too much trouble, you will all be punished accordingly. Now." Finnerman moved to stand in front of Amanda, whose leg had recovered during the ceremony. "You seem to have a reputation for stealing things. I do hope you will not continue this habit." Amanda scowled at her as Finnerman moved to Akko. "You are here because of special permission, yet you have already caused trouble." Akko looked embarassed and stared at the ground. Then the teacher finally moved towards Diana. "And as for you..." Her harsh voice softened slightly. "We expected better from you. Maybe you can still show us we were not wrong." Diana's expression did not change from her usual, almost blank expression. Finnerman then addressed all of them again, speaking harshly. "Now, we will be watching you three closely for any more trouble, so do not make any. You can go to your room now."

They didn't waste any time getting away from there, and once they were out of sight, Akko turned around. "Alright! We did it! Now let's go to our room!" As she said this, she pointed at the roof. After a few seconds she spoke again while lowering her arm. "Where is our room?"

Diana sighed while Amanda started grinning. Akko was a lot of trouble, but at least she wasn't going to get bored with Akko around. "They did tell us, I think I can find it." Akko's expression brightened immediately. "Let's go!" Amanda started walking, but clearly this wasn't good enough for Akko, as she grabbed her arm and started running, assuming she'd say it if they were going in the wrong direction.

Diana sighed again, before slowly following them. She saw them go around a corner, and suspected that she wouldn't see them again before reaching their room. Which was fine by her. With nobody nearby to see, she finally relaxed a bit, smiling in wonder that she had actually made it to Luna Nova, despite everything that had happened today.

As such, she was caught off guard when Akko came running back around the corner, looking like she'd lost something. When Akko saw Diana, she cheered up and ran towards her. As unexpected as this was, Diana didn't know what to do, other than attempting to compose herself. Akko seemed to ignore this and instead grabbed onto her arm, much like she had done with Amanda. "Come on! Let's go!" "What?" And as excited as she was, and as surprised as Diana was, she managed to get Diana to run along with her. Which was honestly a miracle on a day filled with them. As she passed Amanda, she too started running with them. And so, team blue ran in the halls, sometimes having to go back because Akko had gotten ahead of herself, but eventually reaching the room they would be sharing for the next few years.


	5. Roommates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akko, Amanda and Diana settle into their shared room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter took a long time to write, both because of losing a lot of the text (I accidentally closed ao3) and due to not knowing what I wanted to do with this. I hope it worked out well though.

Akko stopped in front of the door and turned around to face Diana and Amanda. While Amanda was still grinning at Akko, having more or less forgiven her for the mess she'd caused, Diana was just looking at her impassively. "Alright! This is a special moment! We finally get to see our room!" She turned around excitedly and tried to open the door, failing. "Hey Akko, it's locked." "Oh! Okay then... how do we unlock it?" Amanda walked to the doorknob and unlocked the door. Akko had time for a quick "Thanks!" before turning around again to open the door, this time for real.

But when she opened the door, both she and Amanda froze in shock. Akko was the first of the two to recover. "This is amazing! We have our own couch!" She ran into the room and started walking around and looking at everything. "Look at this! I didn't know the rooms were this big!" Amanda, finally able to talk and move again, started walking around too and responded to Akko. "That's because they're not supposed to be this big. So why do we have this room..." As Amanda stood still and Akko was still walking around, Diana walked around the wall. She decided that this bed, far away from the other two, was probably the best option. Meanwhile Amanda came to a conclusion. "Hey, Diana, you said your last name was Cavendish right?" "Yes, my last name is Cavendish." "Is there any chance you mean _the_ cavendish family? You know, very rich, very important or whatever." "That would be my family yes." "I guess that explains the room."

Amanda and Akko both claimed a bed soon after. Akko then began decorating her part of the room, mostly with all of the Chariot merchandise and posters that had fit into her bags. Amanda stared at the Chariot merchandise, but decided that it really didn't matter, as she'd already realized Akko wasn't exactly a normal witch. Her admiration for Chariot was honestly the most normal thing about her. Amanda herself decided it was too late to bother with unpacking, matriculation had taken way too long. Diana on her part mostly had books, which she organized onto the shelves on her side of the wall.

Akko finished setting up her things. Of course, she wasn't tired yet, so she grabbed the shiny rod again as she started to speak. "Amanda, look! It's the shiny rod! The real one! I really thought it would have disappeared with Chariot but it's here! I found it in Arcturus Forest!" And so she went on and on, talking excitedly about the shiny rod and Chariot.

Amanda however, was getting annoyed again, as she had on the way to the leyline terminal, though that felt like ages ago. This time she didn't have to disappear to get Akko away though. She simply had to make a suggestion. "Hey, Akko, why don't you go tell Diana about all of this too? I'm sure she'll find it really interesting." 

Akko, who had already looked happier than Amanda had thought possible, managed to brighten even more at the prospect of telling yet another person everything about chariot. She ran over to the other side of the room to Diana.

She immediately started talking at breakneck pace, while Diana simply kept sorting the books onto her shelves. Because of this, Akko couldn't see Diana's growing annoyance. How could Akko talk so freely about her admiration for Chariot? Didn't she know she'd be ridiculed for it by any witch she might find? Well, perhaps she didn't know, but that didn't make it any easier to deal with for Diana.

No longer able to stay silent about it, Diana closed her eyes and took a slow breath, composing herself, before turning ot look at Akko. Having noticed this, Akko fell silent, not sure why Diana had suddenly decided to react. As Diana spoke however, Akko felt her heart sink to her stomach. "You would be hard pressed to find another witch who respects Shiny Chariot's magic, so it would be best if you were to keep quiet about your admiration for her. Especially at this academy."

This wasn't right, Diana had helped her. Diana was the reason she got to this school, and even after Akko basically causing the entire Arcturus Forest problem, she hadn't seemed angry. Even moreso, they'd all ran to their room together. Diana had been nice all this time, and so far she'd been the only person to do so. Even Amanda had been rude at first. But not Diana, which made it hurt all the more when Diana said those words. She'd sounded like a completely different person, cold and harsh. Before that she had sounded indifferent at worst. Somehow however, Akko had made her angry.

Though Akko didn't think further about this, as she recovered and became angry at Diana's statement. "That can't be true! Chariot's magic show was world-renowned and loved by all!" Diana frowned at this. "I must admit, she did enjoy a period of popularity in the past. However, that popularity did not reach the magic world. Neither did her gaudy yet insubstantial spectacles have any lasting power. It has been ten years since she disappeared, and nobody cares enough to even make an attempt at finding her." Surprisingly, Diana's frown grew ever so slightly at her own statement. Though Akko didn't notice this, and Amanda was too far away to see and also too busy trying to pretend she wasn't there.

"Chariot is-... Chariot gave me a dream! That much is true, and I even have her shiny rod right here!" "While that is true, it does not change what everyone at this school thinks of her. If you are to keep flaunting your admiration for Chariot, you will be ridiculed by everyone." "Well I don't want to be friends with anyone who does anyways!" As she said this Akko turned away from Diana, crossing her arms and walking to her own side of the room, indicating an end to the conversation as far as she was concerned. Diana made no attempt to follow her. Instead she closed her eyes and took a deep breath in an attempt to compose herself. This entire day had been a disaster, and now she'd only made things worse by antagonizing her own teammate. Though the consequences of this would be a problem for another day, she thought, as she went back to arranging her books.

On the other side of the room, Akko was putting away the shiny rod in a safe place when Amanda of all people came up to her to try and see if she was okay. How the tables had turned, Akko thought wryly, the day started with Amanda being rude and Diana being nice. Of course it was going to end with Diana being rude and Amanda being nice. Couldn't there just be a nice witch at this school? Of course, Akko just told Amanda everything was fine. "Right, well then we should probably go sleep, since we do have classes tomorrow." "That's right! Classes! I wonder what spells we will learn!" Amanda wasn't sure if mentioning classes was a good idea or a terrible idea, on one hand, Akko was back to her cheery self, on the other hand, Akko was back to her cheery self and that didn't do her odds of sleeping any good.

Noticing Akko had started talking a mile a minute again, Diana sighed, as she wouldn't get a chance to fall asleep while Akko was making so much noise, she decided she might as well prepare for the next day's lessons. Her books were all arranged properly, so she went to sit at her desk, checking on the lessons they'd have and grabbing the related books. As she did this, she listened to Akko's rambling, she had to admit that she was relieved to hear her. It seemed Akko was not one to stay down about something for long. It went on like this for a while, Akko talking about how excited she was and how long she'd been trying (and failing) to use magic. Amanda on her part, was half listening while getting ready for bed, hoping Akko would stop talking if she saw Amanda wanted to sleep. Diana didn't mind either way. Amanda went to sleep first, and as she did so, Akko started getting ready for bed. Eventually both of them were sleeping, the lights on their side of the room already turned off. Diana was still working on her preparations for the lessons, she'd started this so she might as well finish before going to sleep. Her lamp was the only one still on in the entire room. By the time she was ready for bed, it was already very late, but at least she fell asleep quickly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know, after that comment on how cute the story was, I kind of feel bad about writing this. Not to worry though, they're not going to stay at odds as long as they do in the show.
> 
> Also an edit because I keep forgetting to do the thing with the publication date, meaning it won't appear as a recent update to the fic.


	6. The first day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's team blue's first day at Luna Nova, and also their first day as a team.

Diana was the first to wake up. Amanda and Akko were still fast asleep, and remained so for all of the time Diana spent getting ready. Considering what had happened the night before, Diana decided to spend the time before classes in the library. Before she left she decided it would probably be best to wake up at least one of them, as it wouldn't be good to be late to class on the first day. Especially not after the way they got to matriculation. Truly they were only allowed in on a technicality, as it was usually not possible to get in once the doors were closed, there was no rule in place for those who didn't bother with doors. As such, the usual punishment for being late didn't apply to them. Of course, the rules had probably been changed by now.

Fearing that Amanda and Akko would both wake up late, Diana looked at the clock to see how long they had until their first lesson. She saw that there would be just enough time to get ready if Amanda and Akko were to wake up now. However, she'd been meaning to avoid Akko for a while, hoping that Akko's anger would simply pass if she waited long enough. As such, she decided to only wake up Amanda, telling her about the time until the first lesson and explaining that she herself was going to the library. Amanda was annoyed at being woken up, but at least she wasn't angry. Akko probably would be.

And so, when Diana had left, Amanda went to go wake Akko up. While Akko was surprised, confused and drowsy at first, not being used to people waking her up, once she remembered what had happened the day before, she was immediately wide awake. "Hey Amanda!" As she said this, she stood up and rushed to grab the shiny rod. "It wasn't just a dream! I finally made it to Luna Nova!" Akko cheered and laughed, while Amanda stared at her, wondering how she could already have this much energy when it was this early. Apparently she had ended up with two morning people. _Great._

"Look Amanda! It really is the shiny rod!" Amanda was still not quite awake. "Yeah, yeah... I think you told me that several times already." "Because it's the real thing! I don't know why it was in that forest, but I'll keep it safe until the day I can give it back to Chariot. And as long as I have this staff, I bet I can cast any magic I want!" "Uhh... I mean, sure, you can try." Amanda looked at Akko as she dramatically pointed the shiny rod at the bed while saying "O bed, take flight!" Of course, it didn't work. But that didn't stop Akko from trying again and again. "Hey Akko, I'm pretty sure those aren't actual spells." "But Chariot always did it like this, it's supposed to work..." "Well I don't know how she did her magic, but most witches do it like this." Amanda grabbed her wand and pointed it at Akko's bed. She mumbled a word Akko didn't understand, and suddenly the bed started floating. Amanda put it down again quickly, as it was still morning, and she was still not entirely awake. She didn't want to accidentally break Akko's bed.

"Amanda that's amazing!" Akko pointed the shiny rod at her own bed again, this time repeating the word Amanda had used, hoping the pronunciation was correct. Sadly enough, it didn't work this time either. "Eh? Why doesn't it work? It was definitely working yesterday." "Well, that's something for normal classes, so you should probably put that away and get ready, the teachers will get really mad at us if we're late for our first class." Akko perked up at that "Class?" Immediately she started searching for her uniform, while Amanda was changing into hers. When they were both finished, Akko was wearing the one for practical lessons, something Amanda pointed out to her as soon as she noticed it, explaining that the one she herself was wearing was for normal classes. Once Akko had changed into the proper uniform and they had both gathered their books, it was almost time for the first class to start.

As Amanda opened the door to leave, Akko realized something. "Where's Diana?" Amanda looked back at Akko. "She was at the library, though I guess you didn't really miss her this morning, did you?" Remembering their fight from the night before, Akko's mood soured. "Yeah, she can spend all day at the library for all I care." "Well, come on, we need to get to our first class." Akko immediately forgot all about Diana, instead thinking about her very first class as a witch, and went to follow Amanda to their classroom, talking all along the way there.

When they got to the classroom, Diana was already there, waiting on them. She hadn't gone inside yet, as teams always sat together in class, and she didn't want to decide where they would sit without their input. None of them said a word to eachother as they decided where they would sit. Amanda sat in the middle, between Akko and Diana. It wasn't a great place to be, with Akko still being mad at Diana, and Diana basically ignoring Akko. It was, however, better than having Akko and Diana sit next to eachother. In each class, the same thing would happen. They would silently pick a place to sit, Amanda in the middle, and not say a word to eachother. Though that wasn't just because of the events of the night before. Rather, Akko nearly fell asleep during class, Amanda was almost able to pay attention, and Diana on her part was impossible to distract. Amanda tried, just to see what would happen. Akko also tried, hoping it would annoy Diana.

Diana however, ignored both of them, only bothering to stop them occasionally. Throughout the day, Diana answered every question correctly, and even corrected some of the professors. This was to Akko's great annoyance, because of course Diana had to be the perfect student. Knowing anything and everything, casting every spell perfectly. Always with her impassive expression, like there was nothing that mattered, like everything was oh so easy for her. Akko couldn't even understand how she was paying attention in class at all. Not that Amanda knew that either, but she was doing a lot better than Akko, as during their last class before break, Akko had fallen asleep, Amanda was at least able to stay awake. To make matters worse, someone sitting behind Akko had put a drop of a potion on Akko's hair, turning part of it into a plant. The girl was pleased that it had worked, while her teammates snickered. Diana looked back at the three of them, with her usual impassive expression. The girl who had used the potion on Akko didn't care, while the other two sat a bit closer together, relieved when Diana looked back to the teacher.

Amanda realized lunch break was risky, there was any number of things that could go wrong. Because they were a team, they sat together during lunch. For most teams this wasn't a problem, but with Akko and Diana it could very well prove to be one for the blue team. Tensions were still high because of the night before, and trying to distract Diana probably hadn't helped with that either. With luck though, Diana might simply keep ignoring them, as she had all day long.

Amanda had wanted to keep the conversation away from anything that might cause problems, but she was too slow and Akko was already talking before she could open her mouth. She hit the table, saying "What is going on here?! How are lessons about magic _this_ boring?! Isn't magic supposed to be flashy and all about dreams and miracles?" Diana resisted the urge to say something about it, as she did need to get along with Akko, and anything Diana could say would only make things worse. "This is nothing like I imagined, I can hardly believe this is the same school Shiny Chariot learned magic at." Amanda was at a loss for what to say, while Diana closed her eyes and took a sip from her tea, trying not to say anything. This confused both Akko and Amanda. "Diana, where did you get that?" Diana opened her eyes and looked at Akko. "My tea? I made it." That only confused Akko and Amanda even more. "But why? Why put in the effort of making tea when you can buy something?" "It is difficult to find good tea, and it is quite soothing." Before Diana could recommend either of them to try it, Amanda said "It doesn't seem like you need tea to stay calm." "Then it would seem that it is working." The rest of the lunch break was filled with Akko and Amanda talking, while Diana occasionally took a sip from her tea, mostly when she was having a hard time not commenting on something Akko said.

Just as they were about to go to class, Diana spoke. "Akko, your hair has partially turned into a plant. Do you want me to turn it back to normal?" Akko hadn't noticed before, and Amanda had found it too funny to point out. "Huh? What?!" Akko grabbed onto her own hair to try and see what Diana meant. "WHAT?! Turn it back turn it back turn it back!" "Akko, please stay still so I can turn your hair back to normal." Akko stopped moving and waited as Diana cast a spell. As Akko's hair was still turning back to normal, Diana already started walking towards the next class. Amanda followed, and after checking if her hair was really back to normal Akko followed too.

The rest of the classes passed by without any problems. That is, if you don't count Akko and Amanda trying to distract Diana as problems, and if you don't count Akko falling asleep as problems. As they finished with their lessons, Diana went off to the library to study. Akko wasn't sure what she would do, until Amanda invited her to come with her. "I'm going over to my friends, they don't talk much, though maybe their teammate does, who knows. Anyways, you can come too if you want, they probably won't mind." "Really? That sounds great! Thanks Amanda!"

As such, they ended up hanging out with Jasminka, Constanze and their teammate, Lotte. They sat outside, and Amanda told her friends and Lotte the story of how they ended up appearing out of the floor during matriculation. While Amanda was telling this story, Akko laid out her Chariot cards on the ground, thinking about how Chariot had disappeared, and how hard it had been to collect the cards she had. There was only one card she didn't have, a premium card. She looked at the papilliodiya card, thinking about how they spread hope to everyone that saw them. It would be amazing if she ever got to see them, but they only came out every 120 years. Gathering her cards again she listened to Amanda finishing the story, the way she told it made Amanda seem very heroic, and it wasn't exactly truthful to what had happened. Akko didn't mind though, it was a much better story when told like this, it was more interesting. So she didn't bother to correct Amanda and simply listened, just like the others did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a headcanon that Diana just always has tea, somehow. Nobody has ever figured out how she does it (it's a secret spell) but she'll just suddenly have a cup of tea. Anyways, not a lot happened here, but next chapter will have a bit more going on. Also I will be making an attempt at lining up the release of a certain chapter with a day of happy lwa week on Tumblr as the drawing I will make fits a part of that chapter.


	7. the Jennifer memorial tree

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Jennifer memorial tree isn't doing so well, but perhaps something can be done about it.

Diana had been studying in the library for a while now, but it was important to take breaks, and so she found herself walking on the school grounds. When she got to the memorial tree she saw that the headmistress and two teachers were looking at the memorial tree. It had weakened a lot lately, and professor Ursula had been doing research on what might be the cause. She had found that the tree's weakness was probably only temporary, and told the other two as much. Thinking she found the cause, she still wanted to take a closer look to see if she was right with her conclusion. Diana hadn't heard the conversation very clearly, but she'd understood enough to know the tree had been weakening as of late.

She asked the headmistress about it, who told her that the tree was already very old, and might simply be dying. However, she had other duties to attend to, as did the other teachers, so they all left. Leaving Diana alone with the tree. It would be a shame if the Jennifer memorial tree were to die, it had been planted in memorial of a very important witch. While she had died a long time ago, the tree was still there to remind everyone of everything she had done. Not wanting to let such an important monument die, Diana decided that she would try to save it.

Using spells to be able to carry more at a time, she gathered everything she needed. The spell she was going to use had been passed down through her family for generations. It required two circles of stones, placed in a very specific way, to work. Even then, it wasn't guaranteed to do anything. All she could do, was make sure everything was placed correctly and make sure she casted the spell properly. As she said "Louperial Ral" she moved her wand in a circle, creating a circle of magic, which split up into several balls of magic, each of which moved to one of the bigger rocks.

The spell worked, and as the tree became lively again, Diana smiled with relief. But then she noticed something strange, the ground broke open and she saw something glowing.

* * *

Amanda had finished telling the story, and now Akko was explaining how to play with the Chariot cards. "And that means I win! Nine wins in a row!" "Hey, you keep using things that aren't even on the cards! How is that fair?" "Well if you knew those effects you could use them too. Let's do another round!" As Akko was laying down the cards for another game, the ground suddenly cracked open under it, as roots from the Jennifer memorial tree came above the ground. "What is this?!" Amanda looked around, "Look, over there! There's even more of these things." Roots were breaking through the ground, all coming from the memorial tree. Akko immediately grabbed her cards, making sure she hadn't lost any, and started running towards the source of the problem. "Hey Akko! What are you doing?!" Amanda didn't get a response though, and started running after her. Jasminka and Constanze followed their friend, and Lotte soon followed.

As they ran into the building the area was becoming more and more dangerous, due to roots appearing out of nowhere. Akko was the first inside, and also the first to see Diana, who was dangerously close to the tree. Diana turned around, having heard them come in "Stay back!" "What? Diana? What's going on here?" Just as everyone had caught up, more roots appeared, but these had strange, spiky creatures on them. "What are these?" Diana suddenly realized what had gone wrong. "The roots had parasites on them, that must be why the tree was dying, and my spell only ended up making them stronger." Having figured this out, she decided that they needed to be eliminated. "Murowa!" The magic hit the creature on the roots, killing it. With another spell she managed to hit three of them at once.

Just as she was about to use the spell on another one, Akko jumped in front of it. "Wait Diana! They might not be pests!" "What are you doing? Get out of the way!" "I won't!" Why did Akko have to be so stubborn? But she couldn't protect them all. Diana turned to a different one and used the spell again. As everyone watched, Akko jumped in front of the spell as it was moving through the air. Amanda immediately ran towards Akko, hoping that she was okay. The green team and Diana all stood there shocked for a few moments, before all moving to try and help Akko.

"Now look what you've done Diana!" "I never wanted to hit her, she jumped in front of my spell!" "You could have just asked why she was protecting them!" "..." As Amanda and Diana were fighting like this, the green team was looking at Akko, trying to figure out if she would be okay. Before Diana could think of something to say, Akko spoke up with a weak voice. "Papilliodya... They're Papilliodya chrysalises..." Amanda looked at Akko's cards, which had fallen onto the ground when she had been hit by the spell, searching for a specific card. Having found it, she held it up. "You mean like these?" "Yeah, I'm sure. Papilliodya that only emerge once every 120 years. Magic butterflies that bring hope to the hearts of all who behold them.

Behind Akko, the shiny rod started glowing. Amanda looked at the card and saw that there was a spell on it. "Hey Akko, why don't you try casting this?" Amanda showed her the card. By now, the magic that had gone through Akko had disippated, and she was able to talk normally again. "They Papilliodya spell." Determined, she grabbed the shiny rod. She still needed some support to stand, and Amanda helped her with that. Akko began casting the spell, but then realized that she didn't actually know the pronunciation. "Papillio Filio Nymphodya, that is the pronunciation." "Thanks!" Preparing herself to cast it, she recited some of the words on the card. "Papilliodya that travel the five continents, take flight, magic butterfiles, towards hope! Papillio Filio Nypmhodya!"

After saying those words, the magic went to every single Papilliodya chrysalise, even those that had been hit by Diana's magic, and each of them opened up, showing as many Papilliodya as there had been chrysalises. They all took flight and everyone in the school saw them. Only Diana remained at the Jennifer memorial tree, as the green team had gone outside to watch, while Akko had asked Amanda to help her fly next to the Papilliodya. The tree looked a lot better than it did when the Papilliodya were still on its roots. Truly amazing. Diana walked outside, as she looked up she saw Akko and Amanda flying with the Papilliodya. As she looked to her left she saw the green team sitting on a wall to admire the magic butterflies. She ended up standing on the bridge to admire the Papilliodya. By the time she left it was already dark and the Papilliodya were only barely visible.

When she got to her room, Amanda and Akko weren't there yet, they were still outside flying with the Papilliodya. While waiting for them to come back, Diana started preparing for the lessons of the next day. However, she found that she had a hard time concentrating, with her mind wandering back to the memorial tree and the Papilliodya. It didn't take long for Akko and Amanda to return, and when they did Akko was talking about the Papilliodya and Shiny Chariot, Diana had expected as much. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, before opening her eyes again and standing up. She walked over to the other side of the room, where Akko and Amanda were.

She stopped in front of them, and Akko stopped talking, instead looking at Diana. "You were right. Both of you." She looked at Akko. "They weren't pests," Then she looked at Amanda, "I should have asked, rather than using another spell." Looking back at Akko, she let her usual impassive mask go, hoping she would look sincere. "I truly am sorry for hitting you with that spell." While Diana had been talking, Akko's face had gone from confusion to joy to absolute wonder, at hearing words she had not expected to hear from Diana. In her excitement Akko ran to give Diana a hug. Amanda had to stifle a laugh at the look of utter shock on Diana's face. Akko let go again very quickly. "It's okay, I _did_ jump in front of it. I'm just glad we were able to help the Papilliodya!" Diana was still trying to compose herself while saying, "I guess we were lucky that you knew about them." After that Diana turned around and went back to her side of the room. Akko was almost as excited as she had been on the first day. The night ended up being much like the one before it, though Diana went to bed a lot earlier, on account of not being able to concentrate on her work either way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like I said, I would line it up with a happy lwa week prompt. Now I've used the shipping day because while I'm not going to write them romantically, it is still a drawing about their relationship. It's the last part where Akko suddenly hugs Diana. It's a good thing this was at the end of happy lwa week though because I only got the drawing tablet recently and day 1 was... interesting. So here's a link to the drawing on tumblr: https://aknolan.tumblr.com/post/162753253316/happy-lwa-week-day-7-a-coupleship-of-your


	8. Flying lessons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akko has her first broom riding lesson and learns about the broom relay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So for scenes where basically nothing changes, I will not fully describe everything people do and every line they speak, I'll keep it to just the important things, as I would personally get annoyed if a huge part of the story just repeats the things I already know. I am trying to actually make things different, but there are some essential things where it simply can't be changed.

Amanda and Diana had left the room to go to class, hoping to get into a habit of getting there early in an attempt to stay out of trouble. Akko had stayed behind in their room to practice magic a bit more without anyone nearby to make fun of her. As she was doing so professor Ursula got to the room. Noticing her, Akko tried to hide the shiny rod behind her back. Professor Ursula introduced herself and mentioned she'd been appointed as Akko's mentor, before giving Akko her broom. Grabbing the broom, Akko turned around, holding it close.

In doing so she also accidentally revealed the Shiny rod, which she had put in the strange pocket of sorts that was on the back of every Luna Nova uniform. Akko still hadn't figured out what it was actually for, but it worked just fine to hold the Shiny rod. Professor Ursula asked about it, which lead Akko to explain yet again how amazing Shiny chariot was. This time it was a short explanation though, as she suddenly remembered that the staff wasn't actually hers, and she was talking to a teacher. Keeping this in mind she explained that she wanted to give the rod back to Shiny Chariot when she found her. Professor Ursula didn't seem to care about this at all though, simply telling her that she was its rightful owner now, as it had shown itself to her.

Akko wasn't paying attention anymore though, already having gone back to her broom, wondering out loud if she could put her name on it. After that Professor Ursula left Akko to her own devices, which was mostly excited chatter about having a broom and being able to fly now.

* * *

Akko had joined the rest of her team outside. Diana was standing, Amanda was sitting, and Akko was pacing, too excited for the lesson to stand still. "Akko, can you calm down?" "I can't, this is going to be my first flying lesson! I'll finally learn how to ride a broom!" Taking of her shoe, she showed her foot to Amanda. "How do you think I got this scar?" Amanda moved away from Akko's foot. "I don't know, does it matter?" "Yes it does! I fell out of a tree trying to fly when I was little." Shen then held up her leg, pointing at another scar. "This one is from when I rolled all the way down a hill." She then pointed to her elbow, "And I got this one falling off a roof." 

Diana sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. She sounded incredulous when she said, "Besides the fact that nobody can fly outside of the range of a sorcerer's stone, why would you try a roof? I am aware of your recklessness, but I was under the impression that not even you would try jumping off of a roof." "Well I was _really_ convinced that if it was absolutely necessary that I would be able to fly, and you can't blame little me for not knowing about a sorcerer's stone. How could I have guessed? I believed I could fly so I was practicing as much as possible! And now I really can fly! My childhood dream is coming true!" Amanda sighed. "Alright, I get it, calm down."

* * *

When the flying lesson started, the teacher told everyone but the new students to practice high-speed flight, the new students were going to get their first lesson in flying on a broom. The new students were just Akko and one other girl. The girl had a red sash, meaning she was in the same team as the two who had mocked Akko at the leyline terminal. It was also the same girl who had been responsible for part of Akko's hair becoming a plant. The problems at the leyline terminal seemed like ages ago, but it had only been two days. The teacher explained how to fly a broom and told them to lift off. While the other girl flew away immediately, Akko couldn't get off the ground.

Not willing to simply accept this, Akko kept shouting 'Tia Freyre', hoping that it would work. After several shouts, she had to catch her breath. "You'd have no problem winning a shouting match." Though that wasn't the worst comment, that one came from their teacher. "I've never seen someone with your lack of skill before." As Akko was about to say something in response, they heard someone above them. Looking up, they saw Amanda doing all sorts of tricks on her broom. "Amanda! No acrobatics during class! Get that through your thick skull already!" Amanda stopped doing her tricks, instead lying down on her broom. "Wow, way to kill my fun." "Hey! No sleeping on your broom!"

Akko then heard something else, everyone seemed to be really excited about something. She turned around just in time to see Diana flying by, going faster than Akko could have imagined. Within a second she stopped and landed gracefully, standing with her broom in hand. One of the girls from the red team had a timer in hand, "8,02 seconds!" "Such speed! That's a new record, Diana!" Their teacher had seen it too. "Well, if it was solo races, Diana would have won the broom relay with ease, but I'm not sure how it's going to go with teams."

"Well if it isn't Akko!" "You still can't ride a broom?" "That's going to make it a challenge for Diana to win the broom relay. But don't worry, I know just the spell! Oruihon Deance!" The spell she used turned Akko's broom into a tricycle, as the two girls from team red laughed at her. "What did you do?!" Having noticed the commotion, Diana flew over to Akko and returned her broom to normal with a spell. When she looked at the two girls from team red, Hannah and Barbara if she remembered correctly, they stopped laughing immediately. They almost fled, hoping Diana wasn't angry at them. They hadn't expected Diana to bother helping Akko, but they probably should have as teammates usually help eachother out.

"Diana! What was that broom relay they were talking about?" "It is a broom race in which teams can compete. Each member of the team has to complete their part to pass the baton to the next person. The team that wins, gets their picture taken and put on showcase." Amanda joined them. "So, are we going to join? Races are always fun right?" "I was hoping we could participate." Akko was about to say yes when she realized she couldn't even fly on a broom. "Can we look at the showcase first?"

* * *

Akko looked at the pictures, not sure what she was trying to find until she saw it. "Chariot? It's Chariot! Look! That's awesome! Chariot entered too, and she won! Awesome, I wanna do it too! I'm gonna win and get my picture put next to Chariot's!" Diana sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose as she held in any comment she might have had. Amanda grinned, "Well then, guess that's settled! We're doing the broom relay!" Diana looked at Akko. "Keep in mind that you will need to fly, something which you have not done yet." "Don't worry! I'll be able to fly eventually if I just keep practicing!" "While that is certainly true, keep in mind that we do not have a lot of time."

Akko however had already gone back to admiring Chariot's picture in the showcase. Amanda then turned around, putting her hands behind her head and closing her eyes. "Well, I'm going to go to the magic item café to pick up my broom. The spare brooms just don't work quite right you know?" This caught Akko's attention. "Magic café? What is that?" Amanda opened one eye to look at Akko, "Do you wanna come?" Akko nodded.


	9. Preparations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team blue prepares for the broom relay.

"We'd already be there if we'd taken a broom." "Besides the fact that you can't even ride one, the sorcerer's stone is too far away anyways. There's not enough magic for flying around here." Akko was looking around, searching the town for anything that looked like a magic item café. Not that she knew what it could look like, but that didn't stop her from trying. "Hey, what kinda place is the magic item café?" "Well you can buy magic items or get them repaired, you can also get tea while you're waiting. So it's the perfect place for Diana, if you ignore the way it looks." "What does it look like?" "Well, that's the magic item café." Akko looked at the shop, filled with things that looked like they belonged in a halloween shop. "Here?" Amanda nodded.

As they walked inside, a bell rung. "Welcome!" "Hey, I'm here to pick up my broom." Amanda gave him a piece of paper with the information on it. "Let's see... right, this one. Sit tight." He turned around and walked to the back of the store to go get the broom. Akko walked around, looking at the magical items in the shop. "So where's the café?" Amanda pointed to a place behind Akko. "Not quite what I was imagining..." Akko went back to looking at the items. "Frog's foot juice? Chameleon tongue candy... Smells like a scam." As she heard a noise behind her, she looked around, seeing a broom in a cage. The broom was locked up so that it couldn't move much, but it still moved slightly, rattling the chains.

"A broom?" As Akko said this, Amanda came over. "Not just any broom. It's Shooting Star!" "Shooting star?" "Some witch crossed the entire Atlantic Ocean on this broom. This broom would be able to fly around here, it's filled with magic. There's no need for someone to have magic to make the shooting star fly, it does that all by itself. Apparently it resembles a shooting star streaking across the sky." "A broom filled with magic." Akko grabbed the bars of the cage. "I want it." As she said so, the shopkeeper returns. "Hey, hold it! Get your paws off that, that thing's been sealed." "Sealed?" "Yep, it's a dangerous broom that'll fly to the ends of the earth with no reservations about flinging witches off. But as long as it's got this thing on, we can cage it, even if it escapes. This broom brings disaster." 

Akko got an idea, "Please lend me shooting star! I bet even I could fly if I rode it, and I know I'll be able to win the broom relay too! Just for one day! I'm begging you!" "You? Win the broom relay?" "Yes, I want to win!" The shopkeeper waved his hand in dismissal, "No way, there's nobody out there who can tame this wild broom." As this conversation was going on, Amanda was already planning how she was going to get this broom. They had no chance of winning if Akko couldn't fly, but she didn't have to fly if she had the Shooting Star. She just had to hold on. The shopkeeper spoke again. "Besides, I'm sure you could walk and Diana would still be able to make up for your time."

* * *

Amanda had brought Akko back to school as Akko still couldn't move through the leylines on her own. After doing so, Amanda had left to go back to town, telling Akko that she would find a solution for the broom relay. Akko was walking through the hallways by herself, still angry about the broom relay. Everything was about Diana, always perfect Diana, of course she would make up for Akko's incompetence, she could do anything right? Except that wasn't even true, Diana herself had admitted that Akko had been right when she herself hadn't known about the Papilliodya. Which is why it wasn't Diana who she was angry with, it was everyone else who kept saying how perfect she was.

Akko's thoughts were interrupted when professor Ursula said her name. Akko turned around, looking to see who it was. "Professor Ursula." "It seems you can't ride your broom yet, I thought this could give you a few tips." She handed Akko a book with the title 'My first flight magic' Professor Ursula explained that while it was a rather simple book, it did explain the fundamentals of riding a broom. "I bet I can fly with this! Thanks, professor!" Akko ran off to go try it out, leaving professor Ursula with a stunned expression.

Having grabbed her broom, Akko went outside to go try it out. She read the book and tried everything in it, failing every time. While she was trying to fly, Diana walked by, but seeing that it was Akko trying to fly the broom, she stopped. "Akko, do you want any assistance with learning how to fly?" Her words startled Akko, who hadn't noticed her before. Akko thought about it, before realizing that it would give people another chance to make everything about Diana. 'Look at her! Because of Diana's help she can finally fly! Isn't Diana amazing?'

"I don't need your help." Diana crossed her arms and sighed, closing her eyes. "Perhaps not, but it is usually easier to learn something when there is someone who can help you. Which is why I am offering, as we do have a time limit of sorts." Akko crossed her arms, forgetting about the broom which now fell to the ground. "Amanda said that even if I can't fly, she'll figure out a way to win anyways." Diana opened her eyes, raising an eyebrow. "Well, if you would prefer to rely on a backup plan then I guess I will be on my way to the library." After saying that Diana uncrossed her arms and started walking again. Akko watched her go, feeling somewhat guilty at acting the way she had after Diana had been so nice to offer help. But she just couldn't let this be another failure that Diana would make up for. So she picked her broom up from where she'd dropped it and tried again.

* * *

After borrowing the Shooting Star broom without permission, Amanda had snuck back to Luna Nova, hiding the broom where she could get it before the broom relay started. Though it was a dangerous broom, and it wasn't likely to listen to Akko when she couldn't even ride a normal broom. So Amanda also had a second plan. For that plan she went to find a specific member of the red team. One with a strange love for poisons.

And so, she ended up finding the girl. "Hey, you're Sucy right?" The girl looked up. "Yes, do you need something?" "You're good with potions right? Well I've got a problem, as you probably know Akko can't ride a broom. She does want to win the broom relay though. I was hoping that you would have a potion that could help us." Sucy looked as emotionless as Diana, but while Diana looked like emotions were beneath her, Sucy looked like she simply _didn't care. _Which to Amanda was a lot more unnerving. And Sucy's expression didn't seem to change from that either.__

__"Why would I help you win a race that I want to win too?" Though Amanda had expected this, and already had a plan. "Well, I'm assuming you're in this for the prize you can get from professor Lukic. Something that I doubt Akko or Diana will really want. So if you help us out, that means you've got a bigger chance of getting your prize, right?" Sucy's expression did change at that, with a slight smile. "So if I help you win you'll give me Lukic's prize, that sounds fair. I'll prepare a potion that Akko can use. She won't fly, but it'll be enough to give you a chance of winning." Amanda grinned. "Thanks. Let me know when you have it and how Akko should use it." After that Amanda left to go find Akko, now having two plans in place that wouldn't require Akko to be able to ride a broom._ _

* * *

As time passed by Diana grew more and more worried about Akko, she still couldn't fly, and while that was to be expected the first time, considering she wasn't from a witch family, she'd had enough time to learn. Unlike her other spells which still had an effect, though not the one she wanted, with flying there was just... nothing. And they were now getting ready for the broom relay. Diana looked at Akko, preparing herself for the worst. "Akko, as you are still unable to fly, perhaps we should not participate in the broom relay."

The worst, however, did not come. Instead, Amanda answered. "It's a good thing Akko doesn't need to fly then." Diana frowned slightly, only barely noticable. "Would you care to elaborate?" "Hmm... I'm not sure you'd like my _elaboration_ though..." She stressed the word as a way to make fun of Diana's choice of words. Amanda usually wouldn't do so, as her and Akko's relationship with Diana was... tense. But today was a special day where she would finally get a chance to ride Shooting Star. Amanda felt too giddy to care.

Diana raised an eyebrow at her, silently prompting an explanation. Akko was the one who gave it. "Well Amanda somehow got the Shooting Star, even though the shopkeeper said we couldn't have it..." Akko was lost in thought for a few seconds before speaking again. "Oh the Shooting Star is a broom that flies by itself, you just need to be able to control it. Which is apparently really difficult so there's also a second plan with Sucy's help!" Akko grabbed a potion she had put in the pocket of her uniform. Diana wasn't sure how she hadn't noticed it before, as it was quite large. "This potion will make it so I don't have to fly, but can still be fast enough!" Raising both eyebrows now, Diana asked "Do I even want to know how that would work?" Amanda grinned, "No, you don't. So we're gonna go to the broom relay now and we're gonna win!" Turning around, she left the room, with Akko following her. Diana sighed and left the room, closing the door behind her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I just want to say that I don't know how much I'll be able to update in the next weeks, I'm dealing with internet trouble and also writing trouble.


	10. The broom relay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The broom relay starts, but team blue runs into trouble.

"I now call to open the broom relay of the 1333rd Luna Nova Cup. To the victors, fame and honour. They will also receive a prize from professor Lukic. May the best witches win." When the headmistress finished her speech, Wangari immediately started talking to the camera. The Luna Nova News Network was going to cover the entire event. She went to go talk to the team which was the most interesting by far. Amanda had something huge with her, covered with a blanket. "Here we have the dark horse Amanda O'neill. How do you feel?" "Well I'm planning to just enjoy it." The box with Shooting Star in it started moving, and Amanda tried to hide it.

Wangari quickly moved on to Diana though, sparing Amanda the trouble of an explanation. "Diana, you're everyone's favorite! A word to your fans?" Diana had her eyes closed while answering. "I have none, I will simply be flying as usual." "Right, of course, but still, Akko can't fly, how are you planning to make up for that?" Akko was getting annoyed again, with everything being about Diana. Why ask Diana about her when Akko was perfectly capable of answering for herself? "That will not be a problem, Amanda and Akko already found a solution. I am confident we will win." 

Just as she finished talking, professor Nelson told everyone to line up. The professor explained how the relay would work and told everyone to go to their starting points and relay points. Amanda was going first, and she was going to use Shooting Star to get to Akko, who would then take the broom and the baton to go to Diana. Diana was going to finish the race, winning the relay. That was, if everything would go to plan. Before taking off, Diana looked at Akko. 

"Akko, I can bring you to your relay point. It would be a lot faster than running." "But then, wouldn't you run out of magic?" Diana thought for a few seconds, before finding the perfect solution. "As you will not be using the magic in yours, we could go to your relay point on your broom. That would not drain mine." Nodding, Akko held out her broom, allowing Diana to fly them both to the first relay point. From there, Diana saved her magic as much as she could, while going to her own relay point.

* * *

At the starting point, everyone was getting ready while Amanda still had to take the Shooting Star out of the cage. She would easily make up for the time, but she didn't want to get in any trouble if she couldn't get the broom under control immediately. When the signal to start was given, Amanda opened the cage, doing her best to control the broom. Meanwhile, only Hannah and Constanze were able to fly. The rest had all gotten their brooms stuck, due to one of Sucy's potions. Hannah being her teammember, was spared, Constanze was still able to move because her broom was modified.

Amanda was still struggling with the broom, but ended up being thrown off. Immediately adjusting to the new plan, she grabbed her own broom. She had been hoping to use Shooting Star but apparently it hadn't wanted to let her. So she would do this the normal way. She raced to catch up to Hannah and Constanze. Constanze got to the relay point first, passing the baton to Jasminka. Hannah got there a few seconds before Amanda. Akko had seen that Amanda didn't have shooting star, so once she had the baton she immediately grabbed the potion Sucy had prepared and used it on her broom.

Her broom changed and Akko used it to start frog-hopping her way to the finish, she didn't have to catch up to Jasminka, as she had been strayed from her path by some well-placed donuts from Sucy. She just had to make sure Barbara, who now had the red team's baton, didn't get too far ahead. As long as it wasn't too bad, Diana could make up for it and they would win. Akko didn't like the idea that Diana would make up for her failures, but she liked the idea of losing even less.

Akko was happily frog-hopping along on her broom, when she was knocked off by the Shooting Star. As it turned around, flying right at her, she realized what she saw. As it flew over her, she grabbed the chain that was still on it. Trying to hold onto it, she ended up letting go, but the broom came back around, catching her. Grabbing the chain again, she was prepared for its attempt to throw her off this time. 

She managed to hold onto it this time, while it flew across the world, to the mountains in the north and then changing direction to get to the sea. It went under water, flying around a submarine before emerging again. Going above the clouds, they flew next to a plane. Through all of this, Akko was still holding on. They were moving back above school grounds when there was suddenly a group of birds. Having been distracted by how beautiful the world was from so high up, Akko was no longer holding on very well. The birds were too much to handle in combination with the broom, and she fell off.

* * *

Diana was watching the sky, hoping that if anything went wrong she would see it in time. When she saw something moving high up in the sky, she immediately realized it was Akko, flying on a broom. It seemed the plan with the Shooting Star had worked, though it wasn't really necessary to fly that high. Diana had a small smile on her face, until one shape became two.

Before anyone else had even seen Akko, Diana was already on her broom, flying to catch Akko. Consequences be damned. They would almost certainly get disqualified for this, but that was wholly unimportant compared to the very real threat of Akko falling to her death. Diana flying away like that without having her baton confused everyone at the second relay point. They all started looking to see where she could possibly going. "Hey, isn't that Akko?!" As they all realized what was going on, they all stood shocked, wondering how Diana had even noticed.

* * *

_This was it._ She was going to fall to her death. There was nobody nearby who could notice, and even if they would, how could they possibly get there in time to save her? She was lost in those thoughs, when she suddenly slowed down. Looking up, she saw Diana, who had caught her by the wrist. "Diana!" If she hadn't been so shocked at everything that had happened, Akko might have noticed the relief on Diana's face. As it was, she didn't. Diana lowered them both to the ground.

Akko was still shaken, and stuttered while thanking Diana. "Consider my debt paid with this." Diana sighed and closed her eyes. "Though I suppose we will not be winning the broom relay now." "What? Wait what do you mean debt?" Diana opened her eyes and crossed her arms, changing the topic. "You are covered in injuries, we should get to a rescue squad, they might be able to help." "Ehh? But we can still win!" "We can not win, not after what I did." But Akko was no longer listening, already looking around to find Shooting Star and a way to get back onto it. "Come on Diana! If we go to the relay point together I can pass the baton to you and we can still win!"

Diana ran after Akko who had somehow found a cannon, she tried to tell Akko they were disqualified but Akko didn't hear her over her own talk about riding a broom no matter the injuries. Akko somehow managed to launch herself to the Shooting Star and chained herself to it. Diana hopped back onto her broom, chasing after Akko, hoping that nothing else went wrong, but prepared to catch Akko again if something did.

Akko and Diana were both flying as fast as they could. Everything was going fine, until suddenly the chain that was holding Akko to the broom fell off. Diana had to dodge it as she was only barely keeping up with Akko. Akko was still holding on by the iron bars, but those were not strong enough and fell off. Akko fell off the broom a second time. But this time Diana was right there behind her to catch her immediately. Slowing down to a stop, they both looked at the Shooting Star, which was now spreading its wings, with awe. Though neither of them were sure if they could really call them wings.

"I guess we can't win now that I don't have a broom myself huh?" Akko chuckled awkwardly, having moved to sit on the broom, in front of Diana. "I tried to tell you, we were already disqualified because I left the relay point without the baton." "Oh... sorry for falling off earlier then." Diana sighed, "Either way, you got further than I expected." "WHAT?! Did you just give me a compliment?!" Of course, this was a perfectly logical reason for an outburst like that. Outbursts like this were also a perfectly good way to make sure Diana would be deaf by the time they graduated.

"You could certainly interpret it as such." Diana hoped that would calm Akko down, but it had the opposite effect. Akko turned around, Looking at Diana with a huge smile and bright eyes. "That's not just an interpretation! I beat your expectations! That's a compliment!" She paused at that, her expression turning thoughtful. "Or maybe you just had low expectations, but still!" Diana was getting more and more annoyed, but the straw that broke the camel's back was when Akko said "Perfect Diana Cavendish gave me a compliment!" While turning to face forward again, throwing her arms into the air.

Perfect. The summary of Diana Cavendish. Perfect witch, perfect student, perfect grades and her perfect life. What else could you possibly want? Except, the last one was not even true. Everyone simply assumed so. Diana had felt comfortable enough to apologize to Akko and Amanda with the memorial tree situation because she had thought that they, with their disregard for rules, might not make those same assumptions. Though it appeared she had been wrong, at least Akko had those same beliefs. It was not something she should blame Akko for, but she could not simply let it go either. While she had been lost in thought, Akko had kept going on about the so-called compliment. Chattering away with a smile on her face the same way she did whenever there was anything even mildly exciting going on. How this fit in between the first magic lessons and Shiny Chariot, Diana was not sure, but she wanted it to stop regardless. So she did the only thing she could think to do, say something harsh in hopes of shutting Akko up. Though perhaps she was also hoping that Akko would see it as a joke. She did not want to know the answer. "I will drop you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I am updating later than usual, didn't think I'd have quite as much trouble with internet as I do. Due to the nature of this fic I need to have the episode to compare with, so writing is not really possible right now. I do have another chapter I'd written earlier so I might still be able to update soon, just don't count on it. The internet troubles should be fixed in a week or so.


	11. Regrouping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akko and Diana explain what happened to Amanda.

Standing by the finish line, Amanda was waiting on Diana. It had been a while and already several teams were at the finish line. Something had definitely gone wrong, and she was starting to get worried. Akko might not be quick with Sucy's potion, but she should have gotten to Diana a long time ago. Though Sucy wasn't the most reliable person when it came to actually helping. She would often not really know much about her potions either except whether or not they were harmful. Which is why she kept experimenting on other people, specifically her teammates.

Amanda knew this much because she would often see Hannah or Barbara trying to hide some feature they got from one of Sucy's potions. Amanda couldn't really tell them apart very well, and she didn't really care either. Though it did make her kind of glad that she was in a team with Akko and Diana. It wasn't great and Akko and Amanda often ended up pissing Diana off, but the girl always seemed to forgive them quick enough. If returning to her usual cold ways could be seen as forgiveness. It was better than the constant antagonism between Sucy and her teammates.

Seeing Akko on a broom snapped Amanda out of her thoughts. Something was thoroughly wrong with the idea of Akko flying on a broom, though Wangari had been yelling about it earlier. Amanda had dismissed it as a mistake by Wangari or mishearing the name. It seemed that it was true though, or she thought so until she saw blonde hair sticking out from behind Akko. She suddenly realized that the weirdest part of seeing Akko on a broom wasn't that she was on a broom, but rather that she shouldn't be going to the finish, and especially not so slowly. For whatever reason, Diana and Akko were on the broom together, not even trying to win.

Amanda decided to wait on them to get to the finish and explain, so when they got there she simply raised an eyebrow in question. Akko, of course, started in the middle of the story with Diana catching her from her fall. After which she remembered that Amanda didn't even know she had been on Shooting Star in the first place, so she explained that, not leaving out a single detail. She was talking a mile a minute as usual, and Amanda didn't hear everything, but she understood the general idea of what had happened.

After explaining how she got on the Shooting Star, she remembered to tell Amanda about the second time she got onto it, finishing with Diana catching her again. Only then did she realize that she hadn't explained why they had been going to the finish together so slowly. The order made it hard to understand, but when Akko was done Diana started talking. "In short, she got onto the Shooting Star, she fell off, and because I went to catch her without having a baton we are now disqualified." Akko grinned sheepishly, scratching the back of her head, expecting Amanda to be angry at her for losing them the broom relay.

Instead Amanda started laughing. Both Akko and Diana stared at her in surprise. When Amanda could finally talk normally she only managed to get one sentence out before she started laughing again. "Oh man, you two really are something aren't you?" Akko and Diana both spoke at the same time. "What?" "Excuse me?" This only made Amanda laugh harder. When the laughter finally stopped, Akko and Diana were still staring at Amanda, not sure what just happened. "I guess I just didn't expect Diana to be the reason we got disqualified." She was still grinning. With those words Akko got even more confused.

"But I was the one who fell off... It's my fault." Diana shook her head, "It was not your fault that we got disqualified, we would not have been disqualified if I had simply let you fall. Though I would prefer not to think about how that would have ended." Diana thought that she should maybe be a bit more angry with Amanda laughing at her like that, but found that she simply could not be angry. In fact, she was having trouble stopping herself from smiling, and she did not know why. She had failed and someone had laughed at her for it. Her image of being perfect had been shattered, just like that. But that was not a reason to smile, was it?

Diana had only half been paying attention while Akko insisted it was her fault for falling, and Amanda tried to convince Akko that it was definitely one-hundred percent Diana's fault for saving Akko. Again, Diana felt that she should be more annoyed, but instead she found that she could no longer control the smile forming on her face. Amanda and Akko were just as surprised about it as she herself was. 

"Quick Akko, take a picture! This moment will only come once in a blue moon!" Finding it in herself to control her expression again, Diana glared at Amanda in response. "Oh... well, there goes our opportunity to capture this special moment. Guess we'll just have to try again." Akko was smiling, feeling that maybe everything would be okay between the three of them, regardless of the glare Diana was still giving Amanda. And even when Diana spoke again, wondering out loud if she should feel insulted or not, Akko didn't think Diana was really angry. They might not have won the broom relay, but it was still a good day.

As Akko was about to say something, a girl from the red team came up to them. She wasn't one of the two who had mocked her at the leyline terminal, so this could only be the girl that had helped them, Sucy. "Hey Sucy, congrats on winning, I guess you still got the prize, huh?" Diana had stopped glaring at Amanda, and now frowned. "What do you mean 'still'? Is this the part that I did not want to know?" Amanda was still grinning and Diana was starting to wonder if her face was stuck like that. 

"Yes, this is the part that you did not want to know. Though," Amanda looked to Sucy "I guess you do want to know if it worked, right?" Sucy simply nodded. Amanda looked back at Diana. "Well, I guess we're going to tell you anyways. If we won I promised Sucy that Lukic's prize would go to her because of a potion she made to help us." Amanda looked at Akko, prompting her to explain that part, as she had actually used it and could immediately tell Sucy if it had worked.

"Right! Thanks for the potion, it did work! It uhh..." Akko looked at Diana, already knowing that she would not like the explanation. Diana had raised an eyebrow. "Well uhh... It changed my broom so I could stand on the cleaning part and hold it, while it kind of... frog-hopped? So yeah, it worked quite well until the Shooting Star threw me off." Diana didn't even have it in her to comment on it anymore, not after everything that had happened that day, so instead she crossed her arms, closed her eyes, and sighed.

Meanwhile Sucy was grinning in a rather unnerving way, apparently really glad that the potion had worked. Amanda thought that she probably hadn't tested it before then. She probably thought that she would win herself and instead used Akko as a test subject. And she did win herself, so for Sucy everything had worked out at least. "You make for a good test subject Akko, if you ever need anything, tell me, I'd be happy to help." 

Akko wasn't sure if it was entirely safe, but she heard Diana, who had opened her eyes, answer again. "You have already used her as a test subject before have you not? I assume that is how the plant ended up being part of Akko's hair, and several other incidents." Sucy smiled and shrugged. "Nothing dangerous happened." "So that was you! Stop doing that!" "But you get a lot less angry about it than my teammates, and I have to test it on _someone_." Akko was fuming, Amanda was smiling, Diana was back to her impassive mask, and Sucy was back to actually being impassive.

Somehow it had made team blue forget all about their disqualification, and later when Diana was looking at the framed picture with Sucy, Hannah and Barbara holding their prize, she found herself smiling again at how absurd the entire event had been. The green team had come in second place, despite none of them being fast flyers. Apparently Sucy's efforts to keep everyone from leaving the platform had not worked on team green, and when Jasminka gave the donut to Lotte instead of the baton, Lotte immediately noticed.

Diana looked away from the framed picture to see professor Ursula who had just started her sentence. "It's too bad you were disqualified, isn't it? I was surprised at how well Akko did, despite her inability to fly." "So was I." Diana closed her eyes for a second, still smiling. Turning away, she started walking at the same time as she said her next sentence. "I suppose she has passion, if nothing else." Professor Ursula looked at Chariot's picture, speaking only to herself when she said "Yes, just passion. But, one day..." She let her sentence trail off without finishing it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So my exposition of how things go in this world might be a bit heavy handed, but as someone who gets lost in thought a lot this type of writing naturally occurs to me? On the huge list of things I should work on. Among them is actually planning my story and my world before writing it rather than during the writing. Another is that I keep switching perspectives and I'm not sure if the transitions make sense. heh... I hope you enjoy it regardless of my faults as a writer.


	12. Night-time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amanda wants to watch a contest at 1 am, but Diana is also awake to read her book.

Akko was already fast asleep, and Amanda wasn't sure what Diana was doing. The lights were still on though, so at least she was still awake. Probably. It was entirely possible that Diana had fallen asleep at her desk again. She should probably check, it wasn't like she was going to sleep anytime soon herself. Timezones could be horrible, but at least the contest wouldn't be during class, she'd just have to deal with the tiredness the next day, though checking her clock, she saw it was already past twelve. So it was technically already the next day. At least the finale would be on saturday during somewhat normal times, so she could go into town to watch it on a big screen, rather than using her small magic orb. She still wasn't sure exactly how the thing worked, but it worked. Looking at the other side of the room, she saw the light again, reminding her of Diana. Getting up, she walked to the girl on the other side of the wall.

Since the broom relay, they had all been a bit more friendly towards eachother, and if Amanda was awake late at night she would occasionally check on Diana. The first time she did so, she tried not to make any noise so she wouldn't wake Akko up. Of course, this also meant that Diana hadn't heard her, and her startled scream was a lot louder than Amanda's footsteps could ever be. Somehow Akko had slept through it, and Diana had made Amanda promise not to tell anyone about it. Another time, Amanda had found Diana sleeping at her desk, and after waking Diana up and bringing her to her bed, Diana had made her promise not to tell anyone about that either. Amanda hadn't liked Diana much at first, but seeing how far Diana went, she had come to realize that they weren't very different. There were too many expectations for both of them, the main difference was that while Diana met those expectations (at great cost), Amanda actively went against them. She'd also found out these times late at night and the secrecy around them made Diana a lot easier to be around and a lot less stuck up.

Diana had heard Amanda and turned around, Amanda looked at her desk to see that she had been reading a book. Judging from all of the strange figures that Amanda did not understand, it was either really advanced magic, or not magic at all. Amanda whispered as she spoke, "Hey, why are you still up?" Diana raised her eyebrows, the answer was obvious and she was not going to answer. Instead, she asked a question, also whispering. "Why are you? Difficulty sleeping?" Amanda grinned, it was always the same, she'd ask a question, Diana would refuse to answer, instead asking the same question to Amanda. Usually Amanda would simply agree and tell Diana to go sleep with some excuse of the light bothering her. Usually though, she actually had difficulty sleeping whenever she came up to Diana. 

"Actually I was waiting on a contest to start. For whatever reason the semi-finale is today at 1 am, while the finale is saturday afternoon." "Then I suppose you will be going into town on Saturday?" Amanda nodded. "Green team is coming too, I thought Lotte wouldn't go but apparently there's also something about Nightfall? Busy day." Diana nodded thoughtfully, "Busy day indeed, as I was planning to go into town too. The author if this book" She held up the book she had been reading "is coming into town too." "While that does explain why you're still reading it, you do need to go to sleep."

Diana smiled, and it kind of frightened Amanda because this was usually the part where she _frowned._ Something was definitely wrong. Even moreso when she sounded _amused_ while talking. Amanda would wonder what had happened to the Diana she knew, but it was late at night, and with the dubious secrecy of their late night talks, Diana let go of her impassive persona. Which made her unpredictable, so Amanda really didn't know if it was something she should be worried about. Of course, it turned out to be harmless. Mostly. "Why, pray tell, do I need to go to sleep? It seems the light will not bother you, it would sooner aid you, would it not?" Imitating Diana's way of speaking, which never really left, Amanda answered. "We still have classes tomorrow, _do we not?_ " Diana's smile only grew wider though, "Then should you not be going to sleep as well?"

Amanda tried to think of something to say to this, but came up with nothing. "Well, I guess you're right, but I'm not going to go to sleep, still have the contest to watch. But if you're gonna be up anyways, I can keep you company while waiting for it. Sound like a good idea?" "Not really." "Okay great, let's do it!" Amanda found that it was a lot harder to annoy people while whispering, but judging from Diana's expression it was still working. This wasn't the first time that Diana refused to listen, and Amanda had figured out that annoying her until she went to sleep usually worked quite well.

Diana turned back around and started reading again, with Amanda talking about the contest she was going to watch. She always asked questions so Diana would either have to answer or straight up ignore her. Neither were very good options, as ignoring Amanda usually lead to Diana's books being stolen. Answering Amanda meant that she had to actually pay attention to what she said though. Diana was not even sure why Amanda cared, but she could not be angry at someone for caring either. Which made the entire situation complicated. She supposed she should be grateful, but really Amanda just did not get that she did not need that much sleep.

After about half an hour of this, Amanda sighed. It seemed Diana was especially determined to stay awake and read her book tonight. "Would it really kill you to take a break?" By now Diana had lapsed into automated responses and said 'yes' before realizing what the question was about. Amanda was sitting on the ground, leaning against Diana's desk, and raised an eyebrow, knowing that Diana would see it. "Are you sure? Because it sounds like you need one." Diana did not even look at Amanda while answering. "I certainly do not." 

Amanda sighed again. "Tell you what, I let you read your book for 30 minutes, then I'm going to go watch the contest and you're going to go sleep. Or you can refuse and I will annoy you for the next 30 minutes and then take your book." Diana looked at Amanda, finally. At least there was some kind of response. "Or, you could not do that and let me read in peace." "Jeez, what's got you so worked up that you need to read this book right now? There's hardly a time limit is there?" Diana closed her eyes and sighed. "There is. The author has not made a public appearance before, up until now they have been completely anonymous. Any who miss their chance saturday, might never get one again." "...oh. Well, this still won't do. You can't meet whoever it is when you're so sleep deprived that you can barely walk, and it seems like sleep is not something you were planning on, judging from all of the books."

Diana looked away, "I was going to sleep eventually." "riiiiiight, very convincing Cavendish. It is definitely not like you to get caught up in reading something until 4 am, at which point you fall asleep at your desk." Diana's head snapped back to glare at Amanda. "You promised not to talk about that." With a sly grin, Amanda said "I promised not to tell anyone, but we both know already, so I haven't told anyone. Besides, you know i'm right." Of course, Amanda _was_ right. But that was not something Diana was ever going to admit to her. At least not again. With the papilliodya Amanda had still been too afraid of her to tease her about it, but not anymore, if the late night annoyances were any indication.

Diana closed her eyes and sighed. "Fine. I will read for half an hour and then I will go to sleep. Though I have to wonder," Diana opened her eyes and looked at Amanda. "what kind of contest could be important enough to stay up until whenever that ends?" Amanda grinned, both at her victory and at being able to talk about the contest. "Only the best kind! It's a dancing competition. They've always been kind of weird about the times because it adds challenge for the dancers if they sometimes have to dance late at night and other times in the early morning. Though they do have afternoons too, which is today. But because of timezones, it's very late for us." Amanda kept talking about the competition, to the point where Diana had to wonder if Akko had recently learned a spell to disguise herself as someone else. Or perhaps she was so tired that she'd started hallucinating.

Either way, she found herself stuck listening to Amanda whisper excitedly about a dancing competition for about 15 minutes. After which Amanda asked about Diana's book. Of course, explaining that took so much time that all of the time she'd been given to read had been used up by the time she was done. It was now one am and Amanda put on the competition, complaining about the small screen. "Well, I'm gonna go back to my bed to watch this competition, and I better not see those lights on. You agreed to sleep." Diana frowned. 

"I agreed to read for half an hour and _then_ sleep. I have not read." "Too bad, because you are gonna sleep now. Or do I need to pick you up and throw you on the bed?" Amanda was grinning devilishly now, wiggling her eyebrows. "I would say I can not believe you would say such a thing, but I suppose I can. I am perfectly fine walking, _thank you very much._ " Amanda could practically feel the sarcasm dripping from the words, and started walking towards her own bed, still grinning. Satisfied, she saw the lights turn off a few minutes later, allowing her to focus solely on watching the contest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't think Diana and Amanda have interacted a lot in the show so I'm really not sure how they'd act around eachother? I hope this is in character. I was going to only do a thing for reasons why they absolutely have to go into town on saturday, like they did in the show, but then my hand slipped.


	13. Punishment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akko stole a pie, Diana tries to control the damage to decrease their punishment, and Amanda watches the spectacle.

"You three again?" They were standing in professor Finnelan's office. Akko was frowning, angry about something. Amanda was trying not to smile, all too amused about the entire situation. Diana on her part had her arms behind her back, her posture stiff and formal. Nothing of this was her fault, but because they were a team she was getting part of the blame too. "It was condemnable of you to sneak into the kitchen and pilfer a pie! Not to mention you wolfed the entire thing down in a single night! Are you not ashamed as students of Luna Nova?!" Diana resisted the urge to sigh. "Miss, if I may. It is hardly relevant how quickly they ate the pie." She had gotten pulled into this already by being on the same team, and she might as well make the best out of it. Akko looked at Diana. "It was a tart." "Then it is hardly relevant how quickly you two ate the tart. Though I do not see how it being a tart is relevant either." "They're totally different things."

Professor Badcock, who was standing next to professor Ursula, finally spoke up. "Exactly, They are entirely separate. These children stole a tart, not a pie! Tarts are three times as expensive as pies!" Ursula motioned placatingly with her hands, "Professor Badcock, there's no need to bring up the price with the students." This only made professor Badcock angrier. "Please keep your mouth shut, professor Ursula." She looked back at the students. "In the first place you eat far too much already! Luna Nova has enough financial issues as it is, yet you eat through the food budget like fools!" Akko started walking towards professor Badcock, but was stopped when Diana grabbed onto her arm. Akko looked back at Diana, who warned her with a look. Of course, Akko was not prone to taking advice from Diana, as that would mean everyone was right when they said Diana made up for Akko's faults. So she pulled away her arm and started walking towards professor Badcock again. "We're only hungry because you're so stingy with the budget!"

Amanda was having a hard time not bursting out in laughter. She personally didn't care about punishments. Akko and Diana did, so really this was their problem. Amanda was just watching the show, and also kind of hoping that the punishment wouldn't be _too_ bad. It's not like she could do anything about it anyways, Diana was much better at damage control. So long as she didn't get caught up bickering with Akko. Which, admittedly, wasn't often. Amanda glanced at Diana right as she started talking. "Akko, I believe that is faulty logic, if they were to use more of the budget on food, they would have even more problems with the budget, would they not?" Akko turned to face Diana again. "Well yes, but she says that we're eating through the food budget! I'm just telling her why!" "And I am telling you that by doing so you are proving her point." "Wha-? Well that doesn't matter!" Akko turned back to professor Badcock. 

"That's no reason to give us three kinds of potato dishes on one day! Potato salad, mashed potatoes and French fries are not different enough to make those our only options!" Professor Badcock was exasperated. "How can you not be satiated after eating so many potatoes?!" "Potatoes get digested too quickly!" Diana sighed. "Actually Akko, potatoes have a lot of nutrients, so while you are correct in that we need more variation, with so many potatoes it is strange to still be hungry." Akko turned around for what must have been the fifth time this conversation. "No it's not! Potatoes don't have all the nutrients we need! I think... Anyways, we need something else than potatoes!" "So then you agree with me that the potatoes are not the problem, but rather the variation of food, or should I say, lack of varition of food, is the problem?" And there it was. Diana had started bickering with Akko and was now making things worse, rather than better. "Yeah! That's right!" Akko turned back to professor Badcock. "You need to give us more variation! If we get that we won't have to steal a tart!" Professor Finnelan sighed. "That is quite enough. Not only did you steal a pie, but the two of you back-talked a teacher. Very well, then! We just so happen to be receiving a food shipment tomorrow. You are to unload the trucks. You are also to take remedial lessons with professor Ursula in the afternoon. Am I understood, professor Ursula?" "Y-yes."

Diana's eyes widened and Amanda's amusement disappeared entirely. "What? But I need to go into town tomorrow! It's important. Can't we have something else as punishment?" "I agree with O'neill. It is of utmost importance that we can go into town tomorrow. Anything else would do. We will all stay out of trouble if we can go into town tomorrow, is that not correct, Akko? Amanda?" She looked at each of them in turn, frightening them with the intensity of their gaze, which was unusual even for her. They both nodded without a word. "Absolutely not! You are categorically forbidden to leave tomorrow!" Diana's eyebrow twitched and her posture wasn't just stiff anymore, it was tense with barely held back anger. She looked like she was going to explode, but then with a released breath, the tension flowed out of her posture, and she closed her eyes. She nodded and turned around to leave the office. "Miss Cavendish! What do you think you are doing, leaving when I haven't dismissed you?" Diana stopped walking, standing still without looking back. "Does it make any difference as to what our punishment will be?" "Your punishment certainly will not get lighter." "Then I do not care to continue this conversation." Diana left the room, leaving three stunned teachers and two stunned teammates.

Akko was the first to recover, as Diana had only ever gotten mad when it was about Akko, generally when they were bickering about the importance of studying magic history and languages. It didn't happen often, and they would occasionally be on good enough terms to joke about it, but it still happened. It confused Amanda a lot, how those two would switch between hating eachother and joking with eachother. Though Akko was no longer the only reason Diana had ever gotten mad, which meant Akko would try to be a good friend to her sometimes-friend. Akko turned around to look at professor Finnelan. "Professor Finnelan, can I go after her?" Hearing Akko got Amanda back into reality too. "Yeah can I go too?" Professor Finnelan was still in shock at how the ever polite Diana Cavendish had reacted, and she could only nod. Akko walked out of the office with Amanda on her heels, and as soon as the door was closed she looked around and started running to where she saw Diana. Amanda needed a few seconds to get over the shock of the entire situation, but started running soon after.

Akko caught up to Diana right when she turned a corner. "Diana! Are you okay?" Akko started walking next to Diana, though it was difficult to keep up with her, with how quickly Diana was walking Akko couldn't just walk next to her or she'd be too slow, but jogging would be too fast, so she was stuck in between. Diana simply did not acknowledge Akko's existence though. "Diana? What's going on? What's so important about the town?" Akko stopped talking for a moment to give Diana a chance to answer, but Diana still didn't react. Realizing that Diana wasn't likely to respond like this, Akko went ahead of Diana and turned around to face her, standing in her way with a pleading look. "Diana please just say _something_ , you're worrying me." Diana stopped walking and looked at Akko. 

"Oh, well I am _so sorry_ for worrying you, I was not aware that I was being inconvenient to you. Though I do not know why you are worrying about me, after all if you really cared that much then perhaps you should have thought about that before stealing a tart and making it so we can not go into town." Diana crossed her arms, glaring at Akko to get her to move out of the way. Akko however, wouldn't budge. "You never cared that much before! You only ever get annoyed at us because we get punished again, and you hardly ever go into town! I didn't know it would be such a problem this time but I want to know what's wrong so I can help. I can't help you if I don't know what's wrong." "Akko, this is your fault, and right now I do not want to speak with you, see you, or even hear you. So unless you have a solution for us to go into town, then I assume you are smart enough to understand that you should not be anywhere within a mile's radius of me. Are we clear?" Akko gulped and nodded, too afraid to speak. "Good, now get out of my way." With those words, Akko walked around Diana and towards Amanda, who had been watching from what she hoped was a safe distance. Amanda sighed. "I'll try to explain what's going on, and we are going to find for a solution." Amanda hoped they would find one at least, because if they didn't then Diana's occasional friendliness towards Akko, and the late night talks with Amanda would probably be lost forever, and it would be even worse than the way things were before the broom relay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Due to illness, I can't really write a lot right now, and this fic specifically would take way more out of me than I currently have, so it might be a while before I update again.


	14. Solutions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akko and Amanda need to figure out how they can get into town.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... it's been a while since the last update and I apologize for that. I'll update as often as I can, and hopefully that won't be three weeks next time. School has started again and I've got a lot going on right now, but I'll try to update more often.

"So then, meeting this author is very important to Diana, and that's why she's so angry?" Amanda nodded, completely serious for once. Akko continued talking. "So tomorrow we'll have to deal with the food shipment and then go into town after that..." "Basically yeah." Akko hummed in thought. "Well let's find a way to do this!" However, Akko's determination didn't get her very far. "Amandaaaaaaa... Help me..." "I _am_ helping. I don't know anything either." Akko sighed. "Can't we ask someone for help? How about that girl who helped us with the broom relay. Sucy, right?" Amanda sighed. "Well... she's probably our best chance. Let's go find her and hope she doesn't do anything too dangerous."

* * *

"You knock." "No, you knock." "But they all hate me!" Amanda sighed. "And do you think it's any different with me?" "I don't know! But at least they don't _all_ make fun of you! Sucy doesn't bother you." Amanda relented as she couldn't think of anything to say, and stepped forward to knock, just as the door opened. Hannah was standing in the doorway, looking incredibly annoyed. "What are you two doing here?" Amanda tried not to look too annoyed as she spoke. "We're looking for Sucy." "Well luckily for me, she's not here. So go yell somewhere else." After saying that, she slammed the door shut.

Amanda groaned. "Great. Now what are we going to do? It's not like we can just hitch a ride into town!" Akko deflated. "It's not like any cars actually get to Luna Nova... well except for the potato car. Which we have to unload." Akko cheered up immediately, almost yelling as she kept talking. "We can hitch a ride into town!" "That's probably breaking about ten more rules." "But it's still a great idea!" Amanda grinned. "Yeah, it is. Let's go see if Diana will punch you in the face for getting within talking range."

* * *

Amanda and Akko stood before a door again, though this time it was their own. Usually that would make them less nervous, but today was not usual. Today this was the most dangerous place they could be in, but if they didn't do this now, tomorrow would be even more dangerous. "Amanda... would you be willing to knock?" "This is between you and Diana, I'm just gonna... stay here. Good luck." Amanda put her hand on Akko's shoulder, trying to reassure her, before letting go to lean against a wall.

Akko sighed, she knew Amanda was right, and she also knew Amanda was right in wanting to avoid whatever was going to happen. Deciding that Diana might lock the door if she knocked, she silently pushed the door open, slipping inside. She looked around in her room. Usually it felt like a safe place, she didn't always get along with her roommates, but regardless of that the room was like a no conflict zone. It was like an unspoken rule, everyone needed a place where they wouldn't have to worry, and for the three of them, their room had become that place.

Usually the room was comforting in its space. It was big, but somehow remained cosy. But today it felt cold and empty. The light was pale, and Akko felt like the only good part about how big the room was, was that she would be able to hide if worst came to worst. Which seemed likely. Akko looked at the wall seperating her from Diana. Her last piece of protection, before she would face Diana. For a moment Akko thought about turning around and leaving, but she couldn't do that. So she steeled herself and walked around the bookcase.

"Diana!" Diana hid the fact that she flinched, or that she'd been incredibly close to tears, as she spoke, not facing Akko. "Akko." To Akko her voice sounded colder than it had ever been before. Earlier, Diana had been too angry, but now she had calmed down significantly. The anger was still there, but it was controlled now, and it was that much more terrifying. Akko tried not to shrink away as Diana spoke again. "What are you doing here." Akko took a deep breath, steeling herself for how Diana might react. Halfway through she was interrupted. "If you are going to waste time instead of telling me why you are here, just leave." "No no no! That's not it! I just... okay. We found a way to go into town! We can get out of school in the back of the potato truck, and hten use our brooms to fly the rest of the way!"

Diana was silent for a few seconds, and when she spoke she sounded less angry than before. "Very well then. That would be an acceptable method of getting into town. Now go make sure nobody will find out and stay away from me." After finishing her sentence Diana went back to whatever she had been doing, pointedly ignoring Akko's existence. Which was still a lot better than Akko had expected, though she wasn't going to question it. That would just invite disaster. Akko turned around, trying not to run as she left the room.

Standing outside their room, she sighed in relief. Amanda raised an eyebrow in silent question. "It went better than expected. Which means everything's still terrible but we have a chance of making it up to her!" Amanda grinned and ruffled Akko's hair. "I knew you could do it. Come on, let's go hang out with the others."


End file.
